Another drama unfolded in neighbouring Haryana where Chief Minister Bhupinder Singh Hooda reportedly threatened to resign over denial of ticket to his wife Asha Hooda from Sonepat.

As the Congress leadership was making last ditch efforts to resolve the crisis over two Delhi candidates Jagdish Tytler and Sajjan Kumar, another drama unfolded in neighbouring Haryana where Chief Minister Bhupinder Singh Hooda reportedly threatened to resign over denial of ticket to his wife Asha Hooda from Sonepat.

However, the CM immediately denied any move to resign, saying these were rumours spread by his political opponents.

But, the drama was enough to indicate the rumblings in Haryana Congress over the ticket distribution for 10 parliamentary seats from the state. There have been pulls and pressures on the high command over the selection of candidates.

The party has so far announced the names for eight seats — Kumari Selja from Ambala, Naveen Jindal from Kurukshetra, the CM’s son Deepinder Singh Hooda from Rohtak, Ashok Tanwar from Sirsa, Avtar Singh Bhadana from Faridabad, Jai Prakash from Hisar, Arvind Sharma from Karnal and Rao Inderjit Singh from Gurgaon.

However, the leadership is finding it difficult to announce its candidates for Sonepat and Bhiwani-Mahendergarh as names of several high-profile claimants have come up.

While Asha Hooda and Haryana finance minister Birendra Singh have emerged as front-runners from Sonepat, power minister Randeep Singh Surjewala, MLA Jitender Malik and Congress Women’s wing leader Krishna Gehlot are also in the race.

There are many contenders for Bhiwani-Mahendergarh seat. The foremost among them being Shruti, the daughter of Haryana Minister of State for Tourism and Forest, Kiran Choudhry.

Kiran has been quite frequently visiting the party headquarters and meeting senior leaders to push her daughter’s case.